Monday, 25 June 2018

The Beatles - for free on YouTube

The Beatles - Free As Birds on YouTube!

In an unprecedented move, The Beatles have released most of their albums for free - on YouTube. Whether or not this is going to be a permanent move remains to be seen. It's all the original British albums, from "Please Please Me" from 1963 to "Let It Be" from 1970, all presented in their remastered stereo editions. In addition to this, the following albums are also available:, "1962-1966" (The Red Album), "1967-1970" (The Blue Album), Anthologies 1-3 plus "Anthology Highlights", "1", "Love", and both volumes of "Past Masters".

In some instances, a music video is screened during the song, in others, there's just a still picture of the album cover. For instance, "Anthology Highlights" starts with the "Free As A Bird" video, then continues with the other tracks with just a still photo, then near the end, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" has the modern music video, as has the closing song, "Real Love".

Screen capture from YouTube (Norwegian text)

It seems that these albums are not available worldwide, as some readers of this blog have reported that they are unable to see them on YouTube. I sent one of my readers in Hungary a link to "One after 909", and all he got was an "attachment unavailable" message. Chile, the Netherlands and Iceland are other countries where the albums are not available, but they are available in important markets like USA and U.K.

Other recent uploads to the channel: "Eight Days A Week" (the Shea Stadium video they made for Ron Howard's film), the Intertel music videos for "Ticket To Ride", "I Feel Fine" (chipless version) and the umbrella version of "Help!". Also, the "Come Together" animated video they made for "1" back in 2000 and "A Hard Day's Night" from the Paris concert. As part of the promotions for the cinematic event "Yellow Submarine" they have published two new short films, "Yellow Submarine - An Introduction" and "Yellow Submarine - The Design":

12 comments:

There are some mix-ups in the process. The "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" video on "Anthology 3" of (of course) the "Love" version of the song. On "Love", there is an audio only version of the same track, but several of the "Love" songs are replaced with the video versions of the standard (video) tracks. Also on "Anthology 2" several of the album's alternative versions are replaced by the video versions.

There are similar issues on other albums as well, particularly with the video versions replacing the album track. Like we know, the audio on the videos is not in every case the same as on the album/single.

I doubt "civilians" (the general public) is going to be too bothered by this, though. :-)

I beleive Youtube is about to launch 'YouTube Music', which will be another music streaming service, with a membership that will cost you £9.00 per month. So this may be in preparation for this? In that case 'free access' may be very temporal ...

CCRider: This is the official channel, here is the link I posted: https://www.youtube.com/user/thebeatles/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=355 As you can see, the channel is the same one you mention in your comment.Gabor Peterdi: Go to the official Beatles YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/thebeatles/featured, scroll down the page to "Albums".Geert De Wilde: Maybe you are on to something here..

@ Teddy Salad Well, I used the word 'temporal' in its original (though rare) sense of "Lasting or existing only for a time; passing, temporary" (OED). No I didn't :) As soon as I hit enter I realised my mistake ... but then it was too late. Anyway, you got the gist ;)

having the songs available on youtube it's like an official digital release, which allow the system to block automatically other channels with the same beatles songs and of course, gain money through the video visits and clicks on the ads. it's just a business move, the money is on youtube now.

Seriousy wonder why they don't set up a "spotify" like service for songs from Beatles, Beatles solo and Apple. Include current tracks plus legacy tracks such as old CD versions and the LP verions. Include audio of outtakes, TV and radio performances. Include video!

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Roger Stormo

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